Call to Let Doctors Help Terminally Ill Patients Die

THE GUARDIAN – Doctors should be able to help terminally ill patients end their lives days or weeks before they die, one of the leaders of Britain’s medical profession has urged.

Terminally ill patients should be provided with the professional equivalent of midwives to help ease the pain and suffering and if necessary shorten the end of their lives, said Prof John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health.

He demanded a change in the law so that doctors caring for people who are dying can end their suffering by giving a lethal dose of drugs to those who want it without the risk of prosecution.

He is the most senior doctor yet to publicly back patients’ right to die.